The Bernie Sanders-General Electric dispute over a plant visit

Wednesday

CNN'S JAKE TAPPER:"Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE, criticized you. He said there's a GE plant in Vermont, and you have never come by to visit."

BERNIE SANDERS:"He's not telling the truth."

TAPPER:"You have been there?"

SANDERS:"Sure, years ago, in Rutland, Vermont, yes. There's a large plant that makes airplane parts."

-exchange on CNN'S "State of the Union," April 10, 2016

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In an interview with "The Daily News" on April 1, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said the manufacturing behemoth General Electric was "destroying the moral fabric" of the United States by moving jobs overseas. In response, GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt wrote an opinion article in The Washington Post, defending the company. At one point he noted:

"The senator has never bothered to stop by our aviation plant in Rutland, Vt. We've been investing heavily (some $100 million in recent years), hiring and turning out some of the world's finest jet-engine components in Vermont since the 1950s. The plant employs more than 1,000 people who are very good at what they do. It's a picture of first-rate jobs with high wages, advanced manufacturing in a vital industry - how things look when American workers are competing and winning - and Vermont's junior senator is always welcome to come by for a tour."

But when asked about this statement, Sanders flatly said it was wrong: "He's not telling the truth." Sanders insisted he had visited the aviation plant.

Such a sharp dispute sparked our interest. Has Sanders visited the Rutland factory of one of the biggest employers in Vermont?

We should note that the two men could be talking past each other. Immelt's article referred to the "senator" and said "Vermont's junior senator is always welcome to come by for a visit" to see some $100 million in new investments. Sanders's Senate tenure began nine years ago, in 2007. But Sanders said he had visited the plant "years ago," apparently referring to before his Senate tenure.

Sanders was a member of the House of Representatives from 1991 to 2007, and mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. But General Electric officials checked with the plant manager, who has been there 20 years, and a human resources manager, who has been at the plant 40 years. Neither could recall a Sanders visit.

Meanwhile, Sanders' Senate colleague, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, at least twice in recent years has toured the plant to learn about the company's new technology and meet with company officials. The Rutland Herald described a 2013 visit by Leahy, noting it was not even an election year. "Leahy works to get more business for GE Rutland," said the headline on the article.

Pilizzi said that plant records show that Leahy also made a plant visit in 2010. She said that records show that Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, who replaced Sanders in the House, toured the plant in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

In 2013, Vermont Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin took a tour with Immelt. A news report said the company had spent $75 million expanding the plant, which produces fan blades and compressors for commercial and military jet engines, and would invest $20 million more in the coming year.

Jamie Stewart, until recently the head of the Rutland Economic Development Corp., was responsible for coordinating legislative visits to the businesses in the county between 2008 and 2015. "In that time, Senator Sanders never attended a function at the plant in Rutland," Stewart said.

Between 1996 and 2008, Stewart had headed the Addison County Economic Development Corp. He said in that post he also saw a lack of interest by Sanders in the concerns of business. Sanders at the time was Vermont's lone member of the House. "On many occasions, we had both Sen. Leahy and Sen. [James] Jeffords but Sanders never got involved with anything having to do with the business community," Stewart said.

Stewart recalled that when he was upset at some remarks Sanders had made concerning a labor-management dispute at a local factory, he called Sanders' office to warn that his rhetoric might inflame a delicate situation that could result in the plant's closure. "I was told there was no one in his office who dealt with the business side," he said.

Sanders is a self-described Democratic socialist, and he has long been skeptical of big business. When Sanders was mayor of Burlington, General Electric was the largest private employer in the city. But that did not stop Sanders from urging citizens to protest a congressional vote to give aid to the Nicaraguan Contras-and the protesters went straight to the GE's gates.

According to a 1989 account in the Boston Globe, Burlington plant manager Jack Lavin "fired off a letter to Sanders accusing him of having 'in effect, condoned' the illegal protests by urging citizens to protest. Sanders shot back that he was 'outraged by the attempt of the GE management to manipulate the situation for their own political advantage.'"

The only news clip we could find that indicated Sanders had been to the Rutland plant was an Aug. 4, 1988, article in the Boston Globe that started with an anecdote of Sanders, then a candidate for Congress, greeting workers as they left the plant when their shift ended.

"The buzzer sounded the 3 p.m. shift change," according to the Globe. "Employees streamed from the General Electric plant carrying thermoses and lunch boxes to find a candidate for Congress waiting for them, his pockets crammed with campaign buttons.

"The employees responded as anyone would respond after spending eight hours on an assembly line manufacturing military aircraft engine parts on one of the steamiest days of the summer: They shook the proffered hand, gave the candidate the once-over and headed for the parking lot."

Sanders was outside the plant. There is no indication that he went inside.

But then the Sanders campaign connected The Fact Checker with Chris Townsend, a retired political director of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). Townsend distinctly remembers Sanders visiting the Rutland plant in 1996 or 1997, when he was a member of Congress. Townsend says he recalls the visit because he was quite upset that Sanders would visit the plant -- which remains nonunion despite years of efforts by the UE to try to unionize it.

Townsend said he objected to the visit because he felt it would be too stage-managed and that a visit by Sanders would give too much credibility to a company that he said was "ethically and criminally challenged." He has no clear memory of Sanders' impressions of the visit.

Normally, a lawmaker might issue a news release about such a plant visit. But Warren Gunnels, a Sanders policy adviser, said no news release was issued because of the union issue. But he said, "the senator has a good memory."

Pilizzi of GE, informed of Townsend's remarks, went back again to GE officials at the plant and reported that no one recalls a visit by Sanders in the 1990s. There appear to be no records of a visit either, such as photographs, news releases or even memos. "It is kind of a big deal when a member of Congress visits," she said. "It is not an everyday occurrence. People remember that stuff and there is always some institutional memory." That was not the case with Sanders, she said.

This story reminds us of the proverbial tree that fell in the forest with no one around to hear it. Did it make a sound?

In this case, a reputed Sanders visit some two decades ago was so under the radar that it appears almost to have vanished from memory. There certainly appear to be no photographs, news releases or other documentation that pinpoint exactly when the alleged visit took place.

As a factual matter, Sanders clearly has not visited the plant or taken a tour since he became senator nine years ago. Sanders bluntly accused Immelt of "not telling the truth," saying he had visited the plant "years ago." But that sidesteps the point that Immelt was making--that the company has invested tens of millions of dollars to modernize the facility and yet Sanders has not bothered to see the improvements . His posture stands in contrast to other members of the Vermont delegation who have been repeat visitors to the facility during Sanders's senate tenure.

In bluntly dismissing Immelt's statement as a lie, Sanders misleadingly led viewers to believe he had an open-and-shut case. But the reality is more complex.

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